Washington - The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the appointment of Albert Tramposch as Administrator for Policy and External Affairs. In this role he will serve as a policy advisor to Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos, and will oversee the office's work with Congress on major legislation to reform current patent law and practice, coordination and communication with intellectual property (IP) offices worldwide, and negotiation and implementation of international IP treaties.

Tramposch currently serves as Deputy Executive Director -- International and Regulatory, at the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), a 16,000-member Association of IP practitioners and owners in the United States. He will start in this new position on February 14, 2011.

"The Office of Policy and External Affairs plays a vital role in so many aspects of what we do here at the USPTO, from developing domestic and international IP policy to overseeing our international work and our engagement with Capitol Hill," said Kappos. "We are very fortunate to have someone with Al's experience and expertise leading these efforts at this critical time for the USPTO and the intellectual property system."

As Administrator for Policy and External Affairs, Tramposch will oversee five key functions: (1) administration and support for external affairs, which will include all domestic and international IP policy-related operations; (2) congressional and legislative engagement, as carried out by the Office of Governmental Affairs; (3) education and training, as carried out under the Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA); (4) global IP leadership through administration of the IP Attaché Program; and (5) economic analysis, as carried out by the Chief Economist.

Tramposch is former Director of Industrial Property Law at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, where he headed the WIPO team for the Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of the Patent Law Treaty in 2000, and was responsible, inter alia, for the Standing Committee on Trademarks, the Standing Committee on Patents, and the Advisory Committee on Enforcement. Tramposch is a registered patent attorney in the United States, and in addition to private practice of intellectual property law, he administered programs in IP at George Mason University School of Law and John Marshall Law School, and served as law clerk to the Honorable Pauline Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Recently, he acted as consultant to the Presidency of the European Union on matters relating to intellectual property and global challenges.

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